HEADS UP! "FULL-BLOOD NEWFOUNDLAND PONIES FOR SALE.
As a last alternative, these ponies are now headed to auction due to the owner's health reasons.
Add to that it is winter, there are hay shortages, the economy stinks, and its Christmastime - these ponies will command very low prices and could end up in the hands of the wrong buyers.
PLEASE contact seller and make an offer if you can help.
The Auction is 12/17, in Ontario.
Photo's can be seen on the classified page of www.rarebreedscanada.org

NEWMARKET, Ont. — A six-year battle by a shepherd trying to protect her flock of rare sheep from government slaughter ended under an avalanche of more than 14,000 pages of paperwork Monday.

An Ontario Superior Court of Justice judge threw out charges against Linda “Montana” Jones, an eastern Ontario sheep breeder, and Michael Schmidt, a well-known agricultural scofflaw, blaming prosecutors and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) for its reluctant disclosure of massive amounts of government documents.

It brings to a close the strange yarn of a fugitive flock, secretly removed from Jones’ farm hours before the CFIA arrived to slaughter them.

It started in 2010 when a sheep in Alberta tested positive for scrapie (a degenerative disease similar to the “mad cow disease” that affects cattle). The CFIA said it came from Jones’ farm where she bred Shropshires, a rare breed that traces its lineage to the first sheep imported to Canada from England. Her farm was placed under quarantine and the CFIA moved to slaughter her flock as Jones fought to keep them.

On April 2, 2012, when CFIA officers and police arrived at her farm, 170 kilometres east of Toronto, with an order to destroy 31 sheep they learned the flock had gone missing during the night.

A handwritten note, hammered into a post near the barn’s door, said the “Farmers Peace Corp.” had taken the flock into “protective custody.”

After two months on the lam, the missing sheep were found on a farm near Chesley, Ont., a five hour drive from her farm. They were then slaughtered and tested by CFIA. None tested positive for scrapie.

Officials were always skeptical about Montana’s involvement and the government alleged it was an inside job — a conspiracy between her and Schmidt, along with Robert Pinnell, a motorcycle enthusiast who worked on Schmidt’s farm, and Suzanne Atkinson, an agricultural reporter with Ontario Farmer.

Last month, charges were dropped against Pinnell; in 2014, Atkinson pleaded guilty to unlawful transport of quarantined animals without a license. She admitted she was part of a group that planned the sheepnapping and housing the sheep that night at her dairy farm.

The Crown planned to use her testimony at trial.

The case, however, ground down over habitually slow disclosure by the Crown of a massive amount of paperwork. Prosecutors didn’t turn over the requested documents for years.

www.shropshiresheep.org

Sheep breeder Montana Jones pets "Murdoch" the Shropshire sheep, who is owned by her friend and supporter Elwood Quinn, after having her criminal charges dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court in Newmarket, Ontario on Monday, Nov. 28, 2016.

Rare Breeds Canada is a federally registered charitable organization formed in 1987. We are working to conserve, monitor and promote heritage and rare breeds of Canadian farm animals.

Conservation takes many forms: we work to increase populations, encourage registration of pure stock, assist farmers to find breeding stock, educate the public, maintain a bank of rare semen and create networks so farmers can find and exchange stock and find markets for their produce.

Markets are developing for heritage meats–in many cases demand outstrips supply. Thanks to years of dedicated work by Livestock Conservation organization around the world, there is a glimmer of hope for heritage breeds. As long as we will eat them, farmers will keep them.

Many breeds that played a vital part in feeding Canadians in the past are still in danger of extinction. Our annual Conservation List takes the pulse of these fragile populations. Rare Breeds Canada also collects data in targeted census counts to understand population distribution.

Food security is an important issue in our conservation effort. The genetics of the older rustic breeds have qualities that are in demand now and may be invaluable in the future. Today’s industrial farming methods of intensification and specialization

have put our food supply at risk by creating a dangerous dependency on a narrow genetic base and highly mechanized management.

makers all over the world are excited about the superior taste of heritage meat & dairy products.

Heritage breeds are ideally suited to organic and sustainable agriculture systems such as rotational grazing and natural, outdoor livestock housing. They complement smallholdings and can be equally successful commercially in the developing niche markets for conscientious consumers.

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